In the last few weeks, several news has come to the fore in the media about the growing of the extreme-right in Portugal and about the violence perpetrated by these nazi-fascist groups.

This growing wave of violence comes as no surprise for us. In the last years, we have been denouncing it, and organizing to face the gratuitous, racist and xenophobic violence. At the moment, there are several antifascist groups in Portugal, from north to south, which have been calling people’s attention to this problem, but these groups have been discredited by persons and political parties who minimize the antifascist struggle, and who, in many cases, call themselves antifascists. Once again, reality demonstrates that what we have denounced about groups such as the “Hammerskins” or political parties such as the “Partido Nacional Renovador” (“National Renovator Party”) or the more recent “Nova Ordem Social” (“New Social Order”) is more than true and that we must not overlook other groups that walk undercover and hidden. Besides these groups, we won’t overlook the successive governments who feed and let people with such connections circulate through public institutions. We also want to mention that, once more, the media has used the word “skinhead” in a wrong manner.

In a very brief but explicit way, skinheads emerged in England, they were youngsters from the working class who identified with certain aspects of the Jamaican culture brought to England by Afro-Caribbean immigrants with whom they socialized, the music they listened to was mainly reggae and ska, and for these obvious reasons they were not racists or xenophobes.

We are antifascists of different age groups, from various parts of the country, with political views that are many times different, but with a common idea and struggle: antifascism. That said, and contrary to what the media might say, we cannot be compared to these groups or parties from the extreme-right, because we are no criminals, we call on tolerance, we want to fight racism, xenophobia, homophobia, chauvinism and all types of oppression.

It is urgent that people inform themselves, that they organize, that they join the antifascist struggle, that they support antifascist groups and movements in their cities.